Are tiger barbs afraid of aquarium light?

alireza

alireza

Ignorance is Evil's Masterkey!
Apr 7, 2006
51
0
0
College Park, MD, USA
Hi every body,
I recently started a 6-gal aquarium with two green tiger barbs. I am going to add more tiger barbs in the coming weeks. My problem is that as soon as I turn on the aquarium light, these tiger barbs go nuts and after a few second hide behind a plant or a rock. If the light is off, they look happy and active. They have been in the aquarium about 10 days now. Is this behavior normal due to the fact that they are not used to the new tank or some thing else going on? My tank has built-in lights, so I don't think it's too bright for fish. The temperature is around 80 F, ammonia and nitrite are 0 ppm, and pH is slightly less than 7. Any ideas? Thanks.
 
Tiger Barbs can definately be skiddish when the lights come on - one way to help this is to turn on room lights first, to help acclimate the fish before the tank lights go on. Also, the Ph could be a little higher and the temp a little lower.

Another issue is that a 6 gallon tank for tiger barbs is very small. They like to be in larger groups (at least 6-8 or more) and they need a lot of room. A tank that is at least three feet long or more will make them a lot happier.

Hope this helps!
 
put it this way, what if they were sleeping, or in that matter 'playing' in the dark and bamb sun like light when in the tank itself is shone on your eyes? ever been in the mall all day and walk outside to a nice sunny bright afternoon? you squint put your hand over your eyes etc....

also they be lonely, trust me, i have normal tiger barbs, and in my tank there is ten of them, they are very social playfull fish, and if not in schools or groups of 4+ they get territorial and nip at other fish, trying to play or whatever they do, and sometimes can be eaten by large fish cause of that playfull nature...

get yourself a nice little 10-20gallon and up that load to like 6-10 barbs....they dont grow very big, so you can put like 10 in a 'small' tank with almost no ill effect
 
I wouldn't change the ph. It is better to have fish adjust to ph than to try to change it. I've read that tiger barbs like slightly acidic ph. If you do try to change the ph do not use chemicals if all posible. Also all of my tiger barbs didn't like the light for the first few days, don't know about ten days. Get more barbs, a bigger tank would be better, and the temp should be lower.
 
Last edited:
joephys said:
I think they are skittish because they are alone and like to be in groups. As said above 6 should be a minimum.
Click to expand...
I have 14 barbs in a 90 gal nitrate is 0ppm and pH is between 6-7 Iand I have the same problem they are happy and active when lights turned off but hide when lights turn on.. I also have that tank for about 2 months now.
 
Welcome to AC SPEEDCUBE!

This is a very old thread. You can start a new 1 & we can hear about your tank, it sounds nice.

There is a "new topic" blue button at the right top corner.

We love to see pics!
 
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